Porn company Brazzers said it wants to sponsor professional fighting-game players via a Twitch.TV livestream with fighting-game community (FGC) member Long Island Joe. Rob Steele, director of special events for Brazzers, announced the formation of a sponsored team with LI Joe as its captain. Brazzer hopes to not only form a team but also host tournaments.

Shortly before the March 6 release of Street Fighter X Tekken for the Xbox 360 and PS3, players uncovered notable content locked on the retail disc, including 12 previously unannounced characters. Since then, a slew of costumes, character colors, gems, two more characters, and quick combo presets have also been discovered on the disc.

While Mass Effect 3 is taking the lion’s share of lashback over shady business practices this week, Capcom has also found themselves on the wrong end of fan criticism. The highly anticipated crossover, Street Fighter X Tekken, released yesterday alongside Mass Effect 3, only the excitement was soon met with outrage when it was revealed that the 14 previously announced DLC characters (including Pac-Man and Mega Man) were already included on the disc.

Virtua Fighter series mascot Akira Yuki will be a playable character in the upcoming Dead or Alive 5 game, developer Team Ninja announced today. This marks the first time ever that the DoA franchise has opened its doors to characters from other fighting titles.

In January, we posted a rumor citing a reliable inside source at Capcom who told us Resident Evil 6 was coming. The game would allegedly feature both Chris Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy as the main protaganists, as well as a happy mix between classic small-town survival horror and the franchise’s more recent action-oriented gameplay. Officially, PR told us, “Capcom has made no announcements.”

Team Ninja, an in-house development studio owned by Tecmo Koei, is best known for its work on the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises. The last major entry in the Dead or Alive fighting game series, Dead or Alive 4, was released one month after the launch of the Xbox 360 in late 2005. Since then, Team Ninja has focused on ports, such as Dead or Alive Dimensions for the Nintendo 3DS, Ninja Gaiden sequels for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and even brought their unique style to Nintendo’s Metroid: Other M, to mixed results. Now, with notorious figurehead Tomonobu Itagaki having left the company amid sexual misconduct allegations and a well-publicized lawsuit, Yosuke Hayashi has taken over as studio head and is charging into 2012 at full-speed with Ninja Gaiden 3 and Dead or Alive 5.

King of Fighters XII, released in 2009, was notable for administering a much-needed graphical overhaul, something the 15-year-old series was sorely in need of. While it had the looks, it came up short on content, eschewing any story element whatsoever and, among other things, limping in with a paltry 22 characters, one of the lowest in the franchise’s history. Two years later and King of Fighters XIII is upon us. Has developer SNK learned anything? The answer is a resounding “Yes!”